“Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.” - Pele
This weekend is our annual O Sensei Memorial Seminar. Our dojo has observed O Sensei's passing every year since it opened in 1974. Furuya Sensei started doing a memorial seminar commemorating O Sensei's passing in 2005.
One of the main reasons why Sensei started doing a memorial seminar was that he felt that people were starting to forget O Sensei's passing. So, he felt that the best way to memorialize O Sensei was with training.
Each year as I plan this seminar, I labor over schedule. Besides trying to find the best mix of times and number of classes, I try and think about the students and what they need. Of course, every seminar should be filled with good techniques, good teaching and hard work, but I also think about the student's experience.
This year, I thought that I would do it "old school" style and do it like our monthly Intensive class and not invite any outside guests. This way, we could we could teach the classes our way and not have to be stressed out with guests or feel the need to ourselves. In short, I just wanted the students to train hard unencumbered. So I decided to do it like our monthly Intensive and start early. O Sensei was a huge advocate of early morning training and said that the Earth's energy is the most abundant in the early morning.
Pele said, "Success is no accident" and he is correct. To get something different we must do something that we don't ordinarily do. The seminar is an opportunity to for each person to experience their success. I say "their" because each person's journey is different and each person has their own stuff to deal with. Teachers and students alike, each of us has an obstacle to overcome.
Some people need to be more patient and go slower. Some need to show heart and stay to the end. Some need to forgive and just show up. Each of us has a journey and I hope that this seminar will give each of us the opportunity to grow.
Friday, April 15th: 6:30-7:30 PM: David Ito 8:00 PM: No host dinner at Nickel Diner
Saturday, April 16th: 6:30-8:00 AM: David Ito (please be there by 6:00 am for clean up) 8:00-9:00 AM: Breakfast 9:30-10:30 AM: Ken Watanabe 10:45-11:45 AM: Memorial Service 12:00-1:00 PM: James Doi
6:00 PM: Seminar Social at the dojo
Sunday, April 17th: 7:45-8:45 AM: David Ito 8:45-10:00 AM: Brunch 10:15-11:15 AM: Ken Watanabe 11:15-12:15 PM: James Doi 12:30-1:30 PM: David Ito